Growing Together: Open Forum

KidsGardening is exploring how to expand and support the reach of youth gardening and nutrition education beyond schools, particularly in settings like childcare, afterschool, and community-based programs.

We're gathering input from practitioners like you to better understand:

• What models are working for you in non-school settings?
• Where are the biggest gaps and barriers, and what types of funding or support would make the greatest difference?

If you're working in this space or have relevant experience, I'd really value hearing your perspective here or in a direct message to emilys@kidsgardening.org. Even brief responses or examples are incredibly helpful! Thanks in advance 🌱

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Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
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Our county's early childhood coalition, Ready to Grow St. Joe (Indiana), is in its second year of sponsoring early care and learning programs-across centers and family child care homes, in both English- and Spanish-language settings-through the Let's Start a Garden initiative.

In 2025, 33 programs received $500 gardening mini-grants, and in 2026, 26 programs were awarded $500 grants to support gardening experiences for young children and their families.

Let's Start a Garden goes beyond funding by providing resources and professional development to help early educators successfully plan, implement, and sustain their gardens. Programs are growing a variety of flowers, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, creating rich, hands-on learning environments.

From "stories in the garden" and opportunities for children to graze and taste what they've grown, to invitations for families to take produce home, these gardens are cultivating meaningful summer experiences rooted in exploration, connection, and joy. 🌱💛

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Terri Kosik
Early Childhood Development Center at Saint Mary's and Notre Dame
South Bend IN
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Terri, This sounds like an incredible program. I would love to know more and learn whether there is an evaluation component of the program, especially for families. Do you know where the funding for this program came from? 

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Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 04:02:35 PM
From: Terri Kosik
Subject: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

Our county's early childhood coalition, Ready to Grow St. Joe (Indiana), is in its second year of sponsoring early care and learning programs-across centers and family child care homes, in both English- and Spanish-language settings-through the Let's Start a Garden initiative.

In 2025, 33 programs received $500 gardening mini-grants, and in 2026, 26 programs were awarded $500 grants to support gardening experiences for young children and their families.

Let's Start a Garden goes beyond funding by providing resources and professional development to help early educators successfully plan, implement, and sustain their gardens. Programs are growing a variety of flowers, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, creating rich, hands-on learning environments.

From "stories in the garden" and opportunities for children to graze and taste what they've grown, to invitations for families to take produce home, these gardens are cultivating meaningful summer experiences rooted in exploration, connection, and joy. 🌱💛

------------------------------
Terri Kosik
Early Childhood Development Center at Saint Mary's and Notre Dame
South Bend IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/23/2026 6:58:00 AM
From: Em Shipman
Subject: RE: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

Terri, This sounds like an incredible program. I would love to know more and learn whether there is an evaluation component of the program, especially for families. Do you know where the funding for this program came from? 

------------------------------
Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/23/2026 6:58:00 AM
From: Em Shipman
Subject: RE: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

Terri, This sounds like an incredible program. I would love to know more and learn whether there is an evaluation component of the program, especially for families. Do you know where the funding for this program came from? 

------------------------------
Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------

Hi, all! I wanted to follow up this conversation to mention that KidsGardening just opened up a survey looking for feedback from garden educators working in programs and gardens that take place outside of traditional K-12 school settings such as those in childcare centers, afterschool programs, community spaces and summer programs/camps. 

If you garden with youth in one of these beyond school settings, we would love to hear from you. The survey should take about 10 to 15 minutes and as a thank you, we will provide a $5 digital gift card code that can be used to purchase a digital download from the KidsGardening Store.  You can access the survey at: https://form.jotform.com/261165748255059.  Thanks for your help!

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Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-23-2026 06:58:07 AM
From: Em Shipman
Subject: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

Terri, This sounds like an incredible program. I would love to know more and learn whether there is an evaluation component of the program, especially for families. Do you know where the funding for this program came from? 

------------------------------
Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2026 04:02:35 PM
From: Terri Kosik
Subject: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

Our county's early childhood coalition, Ready to Grow St. Joe (Indiana), is in its second year of sponsoring early care and learning programs-across centers and family child care homes, in both English- and Spanish-language settings-through the Let's Start a Garden initiative.

In 2025, 33 programs received $500 gardening mini-grants, and in 2026, 26 programs were awarded $500 grants to support gardening experiences for young children and their families.

Let's Start a Garden goes beyond funding by providing resources and professional development to help early educators successfully plan, implement, and sustain their gardens. Programs are growing a variety of flowers, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, creating rich, hands-on learning environments.

From "stories in the garden" and opportunities for children to graze and taste what they've grown, to invitations for families to take produce home, these gardens are cultivating meaningful summer experiences rooted in exploration, connection, and joy. 🌱💛

------------------------------
Terri Kosik
Early Childhood Development Center at Saint Mary's and Notre Dame
South Bend IN

I am a Master Gardener in Delaware involved in youth gardening; we have a lot of small private home daycares that serve low-income families.  Often, they want to set up gardening spaces in their yards.  We will go out and evaluate their yard and advise them on bed placement, types of beds, water resources and I always recommend KidsGardening.org as a lesson plan resource.  We do not have the volunteer resources to provide weekly lessons and hands on help to all of these facilities which have the benefit of operating all year round.  They never seem to qualify for any grants individually as they have a small number of children, are usually for profit and are not a school.  We have applied for seed grants where we can act as a distributor.  We try to coordinate seed planting events, following other programs that we might be supplying, such as our puppet show about vegetables.  Biggest issues are small size & # of children, lack of gardening knowledge by teachers and availability of small grant start up $.

The University of Delaware and the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood supported a Federally funded program called, Let's Go Outside but each year only a few childcare locations were selected, and they were usually the larger ones serving more children to maximize grant dollars.  Now funding for that program has been dramatically reduced. If we can muster the resource, we would like to do a half day seminar for daycare providers at our Extension office on establishing gardens, resources for lesson plans and a year-round gardening plan for our zone (mostly 7b). Grant funding where we could buy necessary garden materials and distribute start up kits to those who come to the training would be needed. (Plus volunteers and Extension time commitment).

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Judy Pfister
Delaware Master Gardener
Millsboro, DE
Judy
------------------------------

Judy, thank you for this work you're doing to support the educators, kids, and families associated with these childcare centers. These spaces are such an incredible opportunity to impact kids with all of the benefits of gardening while they are young.

I will reach out to you directly for more info.

We have heard from many daycare centers that they struggle to find funding for garden programs. This is something we've had on our minds for a while now and are hoping we can help to address. 

Doing a seminar for these ECEs sounds like a great plan. I hope it's a huge success. 

------------------------------
Em Shipman (she/her)
Executive Director
KidsGardening
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 04-19-2026 02:16:56 PM
From: Judy Pfister
Subject: Share your experience gardening with kids in non-school settings!

I am a Master Gardener in Delaware involved in youth gardening; we have a lot of small private home daycares that serve low-income families.  Often, they want to set up gardening spaces in their yards.  We will go out and evaluate their yard and advise them on bed placement, types of beds, water resources and I always recommend KidsGardening.org as a lesson plan resource.  We do not have the volunteer resources to provide weekly lessons and hands on help to all of these facilities which have the benefit of operating all year round.  They never seem to qualify for any grants individually as they have a small number of children, are usually for profit and are not a school.  We have applied for seed grants where we can act as a distributor.  We try to coordinate seed planting events, following other programs that we might be supplying, such as our puppet show about vegetables.  Biggest issues are small size & # of children, lack of gardening knowledge by teachers and availability of small grant start up $.

The University of Delaware and the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood supported a Federally funded program called, Let's Go Outside but each year only a few childcare locations were selected, and they were usually the larger ones serving more children to maximize grant dollars.  Now funding for that program has been dramatically reduced. If we can muster the resource, we would like to do a half day seminar for daycare providers at our Extension office on establishing gardens, resources for lesson plans and a year-round gardening plan for our zone (mostly 7b). Grant funding where we could buy necessary garden materials and distribute start up kits to those who come to the training would be needed. (Plus volunteers and Extension time commitment).

------------------------------
Judy Pfister
Delaware Master Gardener
Millsboro, DE
Judy
------------------------------